H&M to open first Colorado store at Denver Pavilions

Fashion retailer H&M will open later this year at the Denver Pavilions.

Kathleen Lavine | Denver Business Journal

By Dennis Huspeni –

Apr 13, 2011, 8:34am MDT

H&M will open its first Colorado store at the Denver Pavilions complex on the 16th Street Mall this fall, the company announced Wednesday.

“Denver is one of the most exciting markets we’re announcing this year,” said Nicole Christie, H&M spokeswoman.

The international value fashion retailer will take over the street-level anchor space that Niketown is vacating on May 15. Sweden-based H&M has 2,200 stores in 40 markets worldwide, including 210 in the United States.

Most of its U.S. stores are on the east and west coasts; the nearest locations to Colorado are in Arizona and Las Vegas.

“This marks the beginning of a new chapter in the story of Denver Pavilions,” said Mark Sidell, president of Pavilion’s owner Gart Properties, at an afternoon press conference in front of the Pavilions. “H&M is one of the hottest, most sought-after retailers on the planet.”

“We’re proud to deliver Denver a retail experience people enjoy in New York’s Fifth Avenue or San Francisco’s Union Square,” Sidell said.

The chain, founded in Sweden in 1947, is officially named Hennes & Mauritz AB. It has some 87,000 employees worldwide.

Christie said H&M’s strategy is to wait for the exact right spot.

“We’d rather wait to get the location we want than open in our second or third choice,” she said. “We want the prime location that’s the best fit for our brand.”

In an April 2010 DBJ online reader survey, H&M was No. 3 on the list of national chains that readers most wanted to see come to Colorado, after Trader Joe’s and In-N-Out Burger. There is an “Open an H&M in Colorado” page on Facebook with more than 1,100 members.

H&M reportedly had investigated other Denver-area locations, including the Cherry Creek Shopping Center — where Saks Fifth Avenue recently closed — and Park Meadows Shopping Center. The chain is known for opening multiple stores in new markets, so those other sites may not be out of the running for H&M outlets.

H&M did not announce any further Denver store openings on Wednesday. But Christie said: “We know we’re going to be successful there. There’s so much more potential there in Denver, not just in the downtown area.”

Nike announced April 7 that it would be closing its anchor Niketown store at the Pavilions. The store has been an anchor at the outdoor mall, located on the 16th Street Mall, since 2000.